LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Readers are reminded that the views expressed in the letters pages of the Gazette are those of the authors only, and not those of their clubs, unless specifically indicated.
PLATE WINNER In a single game competition where there is a main event and a plate, would it not be a good idea to award the plate to the winner of a playoff between the winner of the plate and the runner up in the main competition? After all they have both won the same number of games, and there would be a kind of justice there. Edward Dymock THIS SEASON’S TARGET SCORE APPROACH IN GC JUST SERVES TO CONFUSE
Am I alone in finding the current Advantage/Target Score handicap system for Golf Croquet an unnecessary and retrograde step for most ‘common or garden’ club players? I find it bizarre that it is now possible to lose a handicap game after you have scored 17 hoops to your opponent’s 2. Why was it judged as beneficial to change the approach previously taken, when the winning player always had to score 7 hoops, even if their better-handicapped opponent had to start on a significant ‘minus’ number as a consequence? I think the Advantage handicap system is fine and probably the best approach yet devised for enabling mixed ability GC players to play each other competitively, but losing a match to an opponent who only has to score 2 hoops, while in a worst case scenario you have to score 18, is truly bizarre and, in my view, a bit of a nonsense that also generates nonsense scorelines! Mathematically the challenge in a handicap game may not have changed, but psychologically making 7 hoops no longer the winning post for both players distorts the contest and undermines participation of the better club players in most handicap tournaments. As things stand, any average club player with a decent handicap (i.e. 4 or below) now actively avoids playing ‘lesser mortals’ in handicap events, as the perception is that you now only need to be on the receiving end of a couple of ‘flukes’, make a couple of bad shots yourself, or see your opponent make a couple of good shots… and the game is over and your own handicap rating heads south at a rate of knots! This robs new players (or distinctly average players such as myself) of the chance to improve their own game by playing opponents who are clearly better than they are. Such opponents are also the players from whom we all obviously have most to learn!
The previous approach was fine, but what we have now merely serves to bring to mind the old adage – ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t try and fix it’! Trevor H-Berry Tunbridge Wells.
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www.croquetengland.org.uk | 11
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